


Just A Scratch

by ThisAz1an



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Mild Gore, Mild Language, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 03:56:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5360165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisAz1an/pseuds/ThisAz1an
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Sole Survivor returns from one of her missions for the Minutemen, only to see her home being ambushed by Raiders. She comes to their rescue, however; doesn't come out of the battle unscathed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> (Notes will be at the end.)

Jayd sighed in relief as she saw the familiar Red Rocket Stop in the distance. The sun was making its slow descent to the horizon behind her, indicating it would be nighttime soon. The wary Sole Survivor was all too overjoyed she had managed to return to Sanctuary Hills in time. Camping out in the Wasteland tends to be a gamble, at this point. Jayd didn’t dare to imagine whatever else would roam the radiated lands during late hours of the night.

Ghouls, Deathclaws, and other radiated animals were enough to deal with.

Beside her, Dogmeat trotted happily, his tongue lolling out from the side. Jayd chuckled softly at the sight and scratched behind his ears affectionately.

“That’s right, boy,” she cooed. “We’ll be home soon. I’m sure the kids would love playing with you again.”

The German Shepherd’s tail wagged all the more excitedly, prompting a happy _woof_ from him.

Jayd had been gone for almost a month and had only brought Dogmeat this time for her venture. She thought the others deserved a break and Piper needed to take care of Nat in Diamond City, despite the reporter’s protest that “Nat was fine with her nanny.”

Outpost Zimonja needed a better home and she decided to help them build one for the settlers living just northeast from Sanctuary Hills. They were amongst the few settlements that were far from civilization and wouldn’t get much outside help other than the Minutemen’s. Being General of the Minutemen meant any settlements allied with them also fell upon her protection and responsibility. It was exhausting work sometimes, having to travel throughout the Commonwealth from one settlement to another. However, it was a comforting thought knowing the settlers within their alliance had some piece of normalcy in their lives.

As they got closer to the truck stop, Jayd heard the familiar sounds of a gunfight in the distance. Dogmeat instantly lowered himself to the ground, a low and warning growl reverberating from his chest. The fur along his spine stood on its ends. Jayd felt her blood turn ice cold when the gunshots seemed to come from. . .

_Shit!_

“Let’s go, Dogmeat!” She shouted, bursting into a sprint up the steep road. Dogmeat barked, quickly changing his pace into a gallop beside her. Jayd reached to her side and pulled out the _.44 Pistol_ from its holster strapped around her right thigh. With her free arm, she tossed her pack aside, seeing a glimpse of it landing behind the guardrails. Jayd made a mental note to come back for it later, there were some important items within the pack that she had promised to get for Curie.

When they approached the damaged yet still intact wooden bridge, Jayd’s suspicions were confirmed at the sound of screams of pain and cries of loss in the distance. The sound of maniacal laughter and cheers from rough and raspy voices being amongst them.

_Raiders._

There were three standing by the entrance of Sanctuary Hills with one of them carrying a minigun and spraying the neighborhood - and any unfortunate settler caught in the crossfire - with bullet holes. She watched a lucky few leap into the houses nearby. For a moment, she thought she caught a flash of red hair and a loud accented voice cursing to the sky.

_Cait and the others must be nearby._

Jayd felt nothing but rage as she crossed the bridge, her booted footsteps catching the attention of the raiders before her. The other two Raiders standing beside the minigun wielding maniac whirled around, wanting to find the source behind the hurried footsteps behind them.

By the time they had faced her completely, Dogmeat had rushed forward in a blur of brown and black fur, leaping into the air, and crashing into the Raider with the minigun. Both collapsed onto the ground, with Dogmeat on top of the minigun Raider’s back. The German Shepherd clamped his sharp, canine teeth down onto the throat of the dirtied Raider, letting out a loud and threatening growl as he shredded the flesh caught in his teeth into pieces.

The Raider didn’t have much of a chance. His dying breath was nothing but a bloodied gurgled scream as Dogmeat ripped his jugular to shreds.

On the other hand, Jayd aimed her pistol and fired off two shots, quickly disposing the other two Raiders before they could harm her furred companion. They let out a cry of pain, their dirtied faces cringing in pain before they too collapsed to the ground with bullet holes bleeding through their chests.

“Bout’ goddamn, freakin’ time!”

Jayd looked up, her heart seizing with a momentary rush of relief. Cait, alongside with Hancock and MacCready, slipped out of the nearby houses and ran toward her. With the exception of the fiery redhead, both Hancock and MacCready wore grim expressions on their faces. She couldn’t blame them, especially when several corpses of the settlers were scattered along the street; their bodies limp as they lay on top of a pool of their own blood. Some were nothing but unrecognizable due to the amount of bullet holes that had been shot through them.

Hancock nodded at her, flashing her a small smirk. “Couldn’t have cut it close there, pal.”

“Cowards had us pinned,” MacCready panted, running a hand down his face. Jayd noticed his usual steady hand was shaking. “While a group of them snuck behind the houses and made their way deeper into the settlement. The others herded everyone back to the safehouse when things got worse. We manage to take down a few of them, but we just couldn’t - ” He shook his head, looking over his shoulder, looking at the dead bodies.

Cait cocked her shotgun, refilling the empty barrel with more shotgun shells, her glare even more murderous than usual. “There were at least ten of em’. Maybe even more if they’re so hell-bent on takin’ over.”

Jayd nodded, holstering her pistol, reaching behind her shoulder, and unstrapping her assault rifle. She tossed it to MacCready, who caught it with ease.

The situation was a lot more gruesome than she could had originally thought.

“So, what’s the plan?” Hancock asked, checking his shotgun, and making sure it was loaded.

Jayd looked past them and towards the direction of the safehouse. She hoped it was holding up long enough for them to get there in time. The safehouse was just a safety precaution at first, since more and more settlers were making their way toward Sanctuary as the weeks come and go. The safehouse served the purpose of being a fortress for them to retreat into if a threat they couldn’t handle ever arises. Today, Jayd was all the more glad she had decided to go through with it and had the safehouse built. But she needed to turn the tables quickly or else the Raiders would find some creative way to get into the safehouse.

“Let’s not waste any more time then. Make every single one of these bastards _pay_.” Jayd practically growled.

Cait smirked menacingly at the thought. “Couldn’t have said it better meself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first posted work. I'll appreciate any kudos and comments so I can improve as a writer and do better on my stories. Thank you!


	2. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gunfight/brawl comes to an end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may or may not have been the longest chapter. But I hope you guys enjoy my attempt at an action packed chapter. Next chapter will be nothing but feels. Mostly. Thank you~!

_“Hey!”_ One of the settlers shouted over the hail of gunfire and bullets ricocheting off the metal walls outside, hope evident in his voice. _“The minigun stopped!”_

“Yeah, that’s great!” Nick Valentine retorted back. An audible boom coming from his revolver as he fired. “But we still have these knuckleheads outside to deal with!”

Piper couldn’t have agreed more as she fired random shots over her shoulder and through the window. She hoped her shots were lucky enough to hit any of the Raiders outside.

They were pinned down with no other options as the Raiders constantly firing at them with what they got. The Raiders weren’t giving them a chance to pop out of cover and fire back. The last time Piper tried to brave the hail of bullets she ended up getting shot in the arm for her attempt. She, Nick, Preston, Curie, Codsworth, and Deacon managed to hole themselves in the safehouse with the remaining settlers that survived the initial ambush. Not all came out of it unscathed but their injuries weren’t too severe, at least. Curie was busy checking on the settlers and tending to the injured. Mama Murphy, Codsworth, some of the parents, and their kids had hidden themselves in the attic.

Deep down, however; Piper feared the worse as she thought about the minigun and the fact she could no longer hear its mechanical rumble in the distance. The last time she had seen Cait, Hancock, and MacCready, they were defending the entrance with other settlers who had the experience of aiming and shooting a weapon.

_Were Cait and the others gunned down already?_

“ _Fuck! She’s ba_ \- agh!”

The sound of a shotgun being fired cut through her train of thought.

_Boom! Boom!_

Cait’s enraged voice was audible as new sets of gunfire entered the fray. “Not so tough now, ya’ fuckers!”

Piper blinked, instantly peeking her head out of cover. Through the shattered and shredded remains of the window, Cait had kicked over one of the patio tables and used it as her cover. Hancock and MacCready had done the same to one of the long tables they would use whenever the weather was good enough to eat outside. What truly caught Piper’s attention was the flash of dark, blonde hair cutting through the forces. Jayd was nothing more than flurry of movements.

She dodged a lunge from a Raider wielding machete only to jab her combat knife deep into their skull, and used their corpse as her shield. In one smooth motion, she brandished her pistol and fired at the Raiders closest to her. Her aim as true as Piper watched three of them collapsed with indisputable bullet holes on either their foreheads or their chests.

A series of threatening barks was also heard amidst the surprised exclamations coming from Raiders as they scrambled to find cover. Dogmeat made quick work of anyone who was too slow.

“The General’s back!”

Piper looked over her shoulder, spotting Preston rallying to the other Minutemen members. He raised his musket rifle in the air and gestured towards the stairs that led to the first floor of the safehouse. There was nothing but fury in his eyes and Piper knew he was berating himself for not being able to protect the other settlers, the ones who couldn’t make it to the safehouse with them.

“ _To the General!_ ”

Several other members of the Minutemen let out a chorused war cry as they followed Preston, charging down the stairs with their weapons at hand. The sound of a door being burst open followed a moment later and the chaos outside got worse.

Piper glanced over to where Nick was crouched behind a neighboring window. The detective let out a short chuckle before standing up and gesturing to follow the others.

“Come on, let’s make sure they don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’ll go up to the balcony and cover you guys,” Deacon said, walking past them with a sniper rifle in his hand. His expression even more stoic than usual. The fact the Railroad agent wore sunglasses on a daily basis made it even harder to discern his emotions. He ran up the stairs leading to the third floor without another word.

Curie stepped out of the room where she had been tending to the wounded and approached Piper and Nick. She gave them a warm smile, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes this time. “Be careful, _monsieur_ Valentine and _mademoiselle_ Piper. I will stay here and protect the civilians, as well.”

“It's probably better if you and the rest of the settlers go up to the attic too, Curie,” Nick said, popping the chamber of his revolver and refilling it with bullets. “I don’t know how things will play out at this point, but hopefully we’ll all come out of this alive.”

Curie looked towards the window, faith glimmering in her eyes. “ _Mademoiselle_ Jayd is with us now. We will surely win.”

Piper let out a soft chuckle, slamming another magazine into her handgun. She pulled back the slide, hearing the satisfying click that indicated the gun was locked and loaded. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate the vote of confidence, doc.”

Once Curie began to help the wounded walk toward the direction of the attic, Piper and Nick headed for the stairs. Reaching the first floor, they simultaneously situated themselves on either side of the front door, their weapons at hand. Piper peeked an eye out of the corner to assess the current situation of the battlefield.

The gunfight had evolved into an all-around street brawl. Minutemen and Raiders were at each other’s necks; swinging at each other with fists (power fisted or knuckles), their weapons, or a variety of bladed weapons. Apparently the Minutemen had decided to follow their General’s lead and start bashing some heads in if they ran out of ammo. Piper could hear Cait’s familiar maniacal laughter in the midst of the fists and metal meeting skin and flesh.

“This is what I call a good fightin’!” Piper heard Cait shouting. She caught a glimpse of the fiery redhead swung a wooden bat, squarely smashing it into the face of a Raider. Any sign of her shotgun was nowhere to be found.

“For a Combat Zone lady, I ain’t surprised!” It was Hancock. Between the chaotic crowd, she saw him slashing his knife across his opponent’s neck. Any Raider who even came close to Goodneighor’s Mayor didn’t stood a chance against him once he had his knife out.  

Not too far away, Dogmeat had his teeth around a screaming and struggling Raider’s leg while one of the Minutemen smashed their head in with the butt of their musket rifle.

“ _Shit! This ain’t worth it!_ ”

A gunshot rang through the air and Piper saw as one of the Raiders trying to escape dropped dead on the ground. Deacon’s handiwork.

“Sorry! Running away is not an option this time!”

 _Where’s Jayd?_ Piper thought, her eyes frantically searching for any signs of a green military jacket. It was the only jacket the Vault Dweller would always wear once it was clean enough. She spotted Jayd a few moments later, who was shoving the muzzle of her pistol under a grimy Raider’s chin, their life ending with one pull of the trigger. On the other hand, was her combat knife, which was soaked in blood. Piper felt as if her heart leapt up to her throat as she watched Jayd get tackled down by another grungy looking Raider seconds later. Without a second thought, the reporter ran out the door and straight into the squabble.

“Piper!” Nick called after her.

She ignored him, dodging and weaving her way to where she had last seen Jayd. It wasn’t as easy as she had thought it would be. Piper narrowly ducked under a flying fist head straight for her. She felt the air above her whoosh by as her hat was caught in the collision. Turning around, she slammed her foot as hard as she could into the back of the Raider’s knee. They howled in pain, their hands latching onto their injured knee as they doubled over. Piper followed it up with a pistol whip across the back of their skull. She heard an audible crunch before they fell onto the ground limp. Piper didn’t waste any more precious time to finish them off, someone else would have to do the job for her.

“Blue!”

Piper finally found her. She was held down by the same Raider and with the tip of a knife just inches away from her eye.

 

**_____________________**

 

Jayd grunted, using every amount of strength she could muster. The tip of a knife’s blade just inches from stabbing into her eye. The Raider cackled above her, grinning down at her with a dirtied, toothy grin. She saw nothing but murder mixed with crazy in his eyes.

“I’m gonna enjoy mountin’ yer head on a pike, _General_.”

The standstill seemed to last forever. Jayd could already feel her arms straining in her effort to keep the knife from being buried into her head. The Raider’s grin grew wider as he watched her slowly losing to the struggle.

“Hey, _asshole!_ ”

_Bang!_

The Raider’s eyes seemed to bulged out of their sockets as one of his hands released the handle of the knife to latch onto the bullet wound from his neck, blood pouring through between his fingers. With one last will of strength, Jayd pushed him off of her with a grunt. He would choke on his own blood within seconds, there was no need to cause any more bodily harm to him. Jayd rolled onto her hands and knees, her heart pounding against her chest, gasping in a mouthful of air.

_Damn, that was too close._

“Blue.” 

Jayd looked up, knowing who that familiar voice belonged to. She couldn’t help but smile, taking Piper’s offered hand, and pulling herself off the ground. Those hazel eyes looked at her with nothing but relief and loving affection. It had been weeks since they last saw each other and she knew the reporter worried for her endlessly whenever Jayd went off somewhere without the reporter by her side.

Yet, their reunion was short lived when Jayd spotted something moving fast towards them beyond Piper’s head.

What happened next was more out of instinctive resolve to protect Piper than being heroic.

Jayd pushed her out of the way of oncoming Raider in Power Armor, but she wasn’t quick enough to get out of its way herself. Instead, Jayd just braced herself for the impact, even though she knew just how bad her injuries were going to be when going against someone in Power Armor. It felt as if a semi-truck had slammed itself into her at full speed. She felt her breath being knocked right out of her body as she felt her feet sail off the ground. For a few moments, her body felt lighter, nearing the sensation of her floating in the air almost.

But the world wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

Jayd screamed in pain as her back slammed back onto the asphalt - _hard._

“ _Blue!_ ”

“Oh, _shite!”_

“Somebody get the fuckin’ tin can!”

“General!”

“ _Ah, shit!_ ”

Jayd coughed, tasting nothing but salt and iron in her tongue. When she tried to move, an unbearable pain shot through her entire body. The ringing in her head also muffled out anymore sounds of the Minutemen fighting against the Raiders. It rendered her useless as she was splayed out on the street with the world nothing but a blurred vision. A hulking, rusted orange figure stood before her. She heard muffled shouting - angry and panicked voices - followed by gunshots. The rusted metal silhouette suddenly disappeared, only to be replaced by a blobby color of red. She coughed once more and Jayd tasted her own blood in her mouth.

 _That’s not good…_ She thought, trying to swallow it back down her throat. There was already too much of it pooling within her throat.

“Blue! Stay with me!” It was Piper’s voice. “Oh, god - you’re bleeding! Keep your eyes open for me, please! Please, don’t…”

The world vanished into a dark void. 


	3. One More Tomorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanctuary Hills mourns over their losses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATED.

_Sole Survivor x Piper Wright._

 

_ Sanctuary Hills mourns over their losses.  _

 

Sanctuary Hills was eerily quiet.

Piper let out a long drag from her cigarette, slowly blowing out the smoke through her lips. Then again, the gloomy atmosphere was understandable. Sanctuary managed to survive a raid that would’ve wiped any other settlement out of the map. Despite their efforts, not everyone came out of it alive nor unharmed. It took a couple of days to count their dead and then properly putting them in caskets. Some were buried and some were cremated in a bonfire. Then they decided to burn the Raiders’ corpses in a separate bonfire rather than just tossing their bodies to the wild and letting whatever radiated creatures have at them. By the fourth day, everyone mourned for the people they lost. There was no planned get together or a soiree for the dead, everyone was given the opportunity to mourn in their own way.

A week had gone by since then. Those who recovered from minor injuries and given a clean bill of health from Curie, they quickly got to work on rebuilding the settlement’s defenses and improving on the weak links. In the distance, the reporter could hear the familiar deep, baritone voice of one Preston Garvey; as well as hammers rhythmically banging against wood and nail. Piper looked towards the garage just across the street, where Sturges and other mechanical types were busy building machine turrets with what whatever gears and springs they’ve got on hand.

Even if they could only build one or two, it would at least boost their chances of not getting jumped by Raiders ever again.

Piper let the cigarette dangle on corner of her lips, looking towards the horizon in a dazed state; oblivious to the figure approaching her from behind.

“Miss Wright?”

The reporter nearly jumped out of her seat, her hand instantly heading for the knife tucked and hidden inside her coat as she whirled around. The muscles in her body relaxed at the familiar sight of two, glowing yellow eyes looking down at her. She placed a hand against her chest, trying to calm her pounding heart. Her cigarette long forgotten on the ground.

“Jesus, Codsworth. A little warning next time?”

The Mr. Handy had the decency to sound guilty. “My apologies. Miss Wright.  I did not mean to give you a scare.”

Piper shook her head, smiling at him reassuringly. “It’s okay, Codsworth. I just have a lot on my mind, that’s all.”

“Understandable, madam. We did just survive quite a bashing.” Briefly, Codsworth went silent before one of his eyes bulbs blinked rapidly. “Now, what was I - ah, _yes!_ ” One of his mechanical arms handed her a package neatly wrapped in _Boston Bugle_ paper. “Here you go!”

Piper raised a brow, taking the package. “Who’s it from?”

“Why, from Mum, of course. She wanted to give it to you personally, but seeing as she’s. . .” The Mr. Handy trailed off, his bulbous eyes gazing down toward the ground.

“Codsworth - “

“Anywho!” Codsworth was suddenly back into his cheery, British accented mood. “Mum told me that if anything were to happen to her, I would be given the honor of delivering this package to you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must prepare a feast. Surely everyone will be quite famished after a long day’s hard work.”

Piper couldn’t even get a word out as the Mr. Handy floated away. She stuttered, trying to form the correct words but none came out. Piper sighed softly, abandoning her effort to call Codsworth back as she looked down at the neatly wrapped parcel in her hands. It was a regular, small rectangular shaped box wrapped with the front line news of the _Boston Bugle._ There was a small card taped in the center, with one name neatly scribbled across its surface: _Piper_. The reporter felt her heart lodging itself into her throat once again, her fingers shakingly tracing the scripted black ink of her name. The familiar handwriting belonged to a certain Dweller. It bordered between the style of perfect cursives and _“chicken scratches,”_ as Jayd was fond of calling it.

Piper stared at her handwritten name for a few seconds more, fondly remembering a time when she would return from her office and there would be a small piece of paper with a small note inside. They varied between encouraging messages to words of adoration for her. Piper still kept those little notes inside her desk. She snapped out of her reverie, knowing the package wasn’t going to miraculously open itself. Placing it on her lap, she carefully ripped away the newspapers; it revealed a beautifully made, mahogany box with _Wright_ skillfully carved across the center with the same handwriting.

“Oh, Blue. . .” Piper whispered under her breath, her voice cracking at the end.

There was only one latch and it was in the middle of the box’s face. She wondered if the box itself was the gift or another item hidden inside the box. Yet, curiosity got the best of her as Piper pushed the latch open with a distinct _snap_. Without hesitation, she opened the box. Inside there was a single key tucked beside a holotape.

Piper had run from many things, mostly for the sake of keeping herself alive, but this one was for the sake of finding out what Blue had left.

She shut the box, closed the latch before bolting out of her seat, and gunning it towards the garage. She dashed past Sturges and his crew, ignoring their curious looks as she went straight into the office that had a working terminal inside. In her anxious state, Piper fumbled with inserting the holotape in before it finally slipped into the receiver.

The wait felt as if it lasted a lifetime before a voice began to play.

_“Hello? Is this thing recording? Hello.”_

Piper had no words left in her, as she was seated before the terminal, listening to the holotape play out its recorded message with Jayd’s voice - loud and clear:

 _“Hey, Piper, if you’re listening to this then something obviously has happened to me that I couldn’t give you your gift myself and I had to make Codsworth do it for me,”_ Jayd’s recorded voice chuckled softly. _“A total slave driver, am I right? Ahem, anyways. I’ve been thinking lately. . .with everything that’s happened - helping the Minutemen only to become its next General. With Kellogg and finding out that Shaun is in the hands of the Institute’s. Roaming the Commonwealth and lending a hand to those who needed help, even though I shouldn’t waste any time looking for my nephew, rebuilding settlements and what not. Oh, dammit-I’m-rambling. What my point is - my future is uncertain, especially since I woke up in a world two centuries later with everything I knew about my world obliterated into dust. So, instead of shooting down every Raider, Super Mutant, radiated animal with the intent to kill out in the Commonwealth until I find a way to get Shaun back, I’d like to have a future - with you. The key that you found along with this holotape is the key to the Home Plate house in Diamond City. It’s fairly big, from what Geneva told me. Bigger than most of the houses in the city so it's big enough for me, you, Nat, and eventually Shaun. If I survive whatever kept me from giving this to you, then answer this one thing for me.”_

For a moment - the longest moment Piper might’ve experienced in her life - Jayd’s voice was quiet before she began speaking again. This time, her voice was hopeful as it asked the biggest question the reporter would have to answer to:

_“Would you like to move in with me?”_

 

_____________________

 

The first, conscious sensation Jayd felt was a headache. A slow and painful one.

It throbbed against her temples in a constant rhythm, it was somewhat bearable although an uncomfortable thorn to the head for who knows how long. She slowly opened her eyes, only to shut them tight when she caught the bright glimpse of the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. She gave herself a minute or two before trying again, to let her eyes readjust to the sudden brightness. In the end, she still had to keep her eyes squinted until the sight of light didn’t made her eyes burn at the sight of it.

Jayd slowly moved to sit up, groaning, her face cringing at the pain throbbing against her abdomen. Once she managed to prop herself against the headboard of the bed, with some difficulty. She felt the telltale signs of stitches along her abdomen and pulling them would cause the wound to open up again. Jayd was somewhat surprised. Before she had passed out from the sheer amount of pain her body must’ve suffered from a Power Armor bash, she hadn’t felt anything cut into her. Which was a worrying thought.

 _How long was I out for?_ Jayd wondered, looking around to see she was in her room - her’s and Piper’s.

A surprised gasp came from the door.

“Blue. . .?”

Jayd looked towards the door, seeing Piper standing there - her mouth agape and her hazel-green eyes widened. She watched as the reporter’s mouth opened and closed, as if trying to say something but couldn’t exactly get the words out. If the circumstances were any different, Jayd would’ve commented how Piper was kinda imitating the “fish out of water” look. So, she just settled with a witty greeting.

“Hey there.” Jayd winced, her voice sounding a bit raspy and not husky as she intended.

That seemed to snap Piper out of whatever had her glued by the doorway.

“You - you nearly died from a charging, power armored Raider freak - “ Piper stammered, her voice quivering as she slowly approached her. “ - had me worried for _days_ and the first thing you say is _‘hey, there’?_ ”

“I would’ve composed a ballad too, you know. But being unconscious most of the time really screwed that part of the plan,” Jayd managed to utter. She spread her arms, ignoring the slight jolt of pain from her stitches. “Will the beautiful reporter settle for a hug instead?”

Within a blink of an eye, Piper practically flew to her side as she collided into her embrace, nearly knocking Jayd back down onto the bed. Nonetheless, she held onto the other woman tightly, her arms looped around Piper’s waist as she buried her face into the crook of her neck. Jayd smelled the familiar sweet but faint scent of Nuka Cola and bubblegum. It made her forget about the stitches that was keeping whatever awful wound she had suffered together, made her forget about the increasingly, growing headache that pounded within her skull.

For now, all Jayd cared about was Piper.

“Oh, _Mum!_ ”

The reporter bolted out of her arms, scrambling onto her feet as a bright red blush streaking across her freckled face, as she stood beside Jayd’s bed. The Vault Dweller sighed at the loss of her lover’s warmth. Both women glanced at the door, seeing a certain Mr. Handy floating by.

“Mum! You’re awake and alive!” Codsworth sounded as if he was almost in tears. He crossed the room and floated beside where Piper was seated on the edge of her bed. “Everyone will be _thrilled_ to hear the good news! We were so worried for you. You’ve been asleep for almost _two_ weeks. Better than another two hundred years, I suppose.”

Jayd’s eyes widened. Were her injuries _that_ severe?

Codsworth’s mechanical voice gasped, a realization dawning on him. “I-I'm _terribly_ sorry, mum! You must feel peckish. I shall fetch you some water and then a nice, hot meal! A Codsworth special, just for you!” He turned to Piper. “Please do look after my Mum for just a moment, Miss Wright. I will be _right_ back!”

As soon as the Mr. Handy had come in, he was out the door within seconds, leaving the two women to themselves once more.

“So,” Jayd said slowly. “Two weeks, huh?”

Piper nodded, sitting by the edge of the bed. “Yeah, Curie said you suffered a mild concussion from the fall - “

“ - explains the headache - “

“ - plus a couple of bruised ribs along with a gash sliced across along your abdomen. It didn’t hit any major arteries or organs, but you would’ve. . .” Piper trailed off, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Jayd whispered reassuringly, lacing her hands with Piper’s. “In case you forgot, your girlfriend is stubborn. Especially when she has a perfect someone to come back to.”

A smile spread across the reporter’s lips as she looked down at their intertwined hands. “A ‘perfect someone,’ huh?”

Jayd winked. “Talking about you, Pipes.”

Piper chuckled softly, looking up, gazing at the bedridden woman with nothing absolute love. She pulled her hands away and placed them on either side of Jayd’s face.

“I know,” she whispered.

Jayd closed the small gap between them, pulling Piper back into her arms and holding her close. 

In a neighboring room, the soft lullaby of _One More Tomorrow_ was playing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! Sorry for the late post, you guys. I know Piper didn't exactly give her answer to the big question Jayd dropped on her. But, that's another story, for another time. Or I'll probably just post a fourth chapter at some point. Maybe.  
> Thank you so much for reading this one~!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first posted work. I'll appreciate any kudos and comments so I can improve as a writer and do better on my stories. Thank you!


End file.
